The dark side of digital advertising

This paper aims to identify the main tactics of deceptive digital advertising. Misleading digital advertising tricks or lures users to take actions or believe things that they did not intend to or benefit from. Digital advertising offers ample opportunities for both serving and abusing consumers. Advertisements that take advantage of consumers’ cognitive biases, anxieties, vulnerabilities, or emotions may be controversial, deceptive, and exploitative. The use of big data for personalization and manipulation through targeted marketing is another instance of dark advertising. There is a vast array of unethical digital tactics, from stealth advertising and deceptive content to platforms and algorithms manipulation that subvert or impair the consumers’ autonomy, decision or choice.